And now it ends
by jean d'arc
Summary: Sometimes the line between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" can be a bit blurry, and the good guys don't always win. If the odds are not in your favour and you have made too many silly costly mistakes, sometimes you do lose and sometimes you do have to pay. Set after the events of season 7.
1. And so it begins

**_And now it ends …_**

 ** _Summary:_** Sometimes the line between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" can be a bit blurry, and the good guys don't always win. If the odds are not in your favour and you have made too many silly costly mistakes, sometimes you do lose and sometimes you do have to pay. Set after the events of season 7.

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 ** _1) And so it begins._**

 _Winterfell:_

"They said he was due to arrive today" the soldier told his companion at the tower.

"King in the North" the other guard replied, his gaze lost in the distance. "Do you think it's true?" he asked his friend after a tense silence.

"What?"

"That he's bent the knee. That he has surrendered the North to this Targaryen girl"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, that's what I have heard. Mikka mentioned it in the hall the other day as we were having a drink. He said he heard it from Tatto, who heard it from Lusha, you know, Lady Sansa's chambermaid."

"I wouldn't know. The Ladies Stark and the little cripple Lord have been very quiet lately."

"Very tight-lipped and mysterious. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

"Do you think they are hiding something?"

"According to Tatto, Lusha has heard them talk in whispers and has seen them read letters. We have not been told of any news since King Jon left Winterfell but something is definitely going on. Apparently Lusha has heard them talk about this Targaryen Queen that King Jon agreed to meet."

"That could mean anything" the soldier replied shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, maybe .. or it could mean everything" the other soldier countered raising his eyebrows. "I was talking to Daygo the other day. Do you remember the fat man that showed up last week with that girl and the baby? Well, Daygo said he is a Brother of the Night Watch."

"Yes, mhh, the one who keeps mumbling and speaks strange? I can't get a word he says. Sam something, isn't it?"

"Tarly. Samwell Tarly. But he has a wife and a baby! Aren't they supposed to take no wife? Has he deserted the Watch and taken up a girl?"

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. Maybe he's just on his way back to Castle Black" the man offered.

"I'm not jumping into anything, but if he was a Brother who was just on his way back, wouldn't he have left by now? And why is he with his wife and baby?"

"Stop being so distrustful"

"Am I? As I was telling you, I was talking to Daygo the other day. He says chubby boy and Lord Bran spend hours in the library just talking. He told me that he heard them whisper names like Lyanna and Rhaegar and Elia."

"Lyanna? As in ..?" he trailed uncertain whether he should finish the sentence.

"Yes, Lyanna and Rhaegar. It rings a bell, doesn't it? And Elia" he paused until his friend nodded in recognition. "Well, chubby boy and Lord Bran go into the library at different times and through different doors and then they leave their separate ways to pretend they were not even together. I'm telling you. They are hiding something. They all are! Lord Ned and Lady Catelyn were never this secretive."

"I think you're just being paranoid" his friend snorted.

"Am I? Did you see what they did to that Baelish guy?"

"Lord Baelish?"

"Yeah, they killed him"

"Mhh. I always found him a bit creepy. I never did like the guy much" he replied noncommittally.

"Me neither. But they killed him, nonetheless."

"Yeah, they said he had betrayed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn, and then tricked Sansa. So, it serves him right, I suppose"

"Exactly: they said. But we don't know, do we?"

"Don't you trust Lady Sansa and Lady Arya, and Lord Bran?"

"I shouldn't answer that question" the man whispered shaking his head lightly. "But I was there in the hall. The two Ladies kept talking about all the supposed crimes he had committed and Lord Bran just mentioned events there is no way he could have known, events he was not privy to or never even witnessed. Lady Sansa also accused him of killing Lady Lysa in the Eyrie, but I was told that when Lady Lysa died, it was Sansa who vouched for him. But now she just changed her words. And then Arya just killed him."

"He was executed."

"That was no official execution, that was murder in cold blood. They just told him: you are guilty of this and that and Lady Arya just slit his throat" he explained running his own finger along his friend's neck. "He wasn't even allowed to defend or explain himself. I didn't really know the man, so I cannot say whether he's guilty or not. All I know is that he saved Lady Sansa in the capital and he brought the army that won us the battle. We wouldn't be here if it were not for him. Jon had an army, but he never had a plan. He had the numbers, but not the brain. He just led his men foolishly to their deaths – not something an experienced commander would do, is it?"

"True. But then, don't you think Lady Sansa should have told Jon that her army was coming?"

"Aye, absolutely! She is as much to blame as he is."

"But we did win."

"Not us. The men from the Vale won. Our army had all but lost the battle. Jon would have died in the field out there" he continued pointing to the field outside the castle walls where the battle against Ramsay's army had taken place. "Our skinless bodies would be hanging from the battlements under the Bolton banners were it not for Baelish and his army" he added turning his eyes back at his friend. "And that is how they repay him" he ran his thumbnail along his own throat. "Doesn't that make you wonder?"

"Wonder what?"

"Whether you'll be next. How do we know they won't just accuse you of things and kill you before you have a chance to defend yourself? I'm telling you, I was there, that was no execution. That was bloody murder. And that Lady Arya relished the sight of blood and Lady Sansa was smirking. That's not the way Lord Eddard used to do things, that's not the way he dealt Justice."

"Yeah, maybe" came his unconvinced reply.

"Have you noticed the way the King and Lady Sansa keep bickering? That's not a sign of strong leadership in time of war, is it?"

"I wouldn't call it bickering"

"He keeps blindsiding her and acting without consulting with her, and she keeps questioning him in public. It's like they are vying for power. I remember when Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn were alive. They would never argue in public. I know the Lords chose Jon as their King. I was there in the Hall when Lady Mormont gave her speech. It was quite powerful and moving; it convinced me. But now I'm not so sure they made the right choice."

"Do you think they should have chosen Sansa?"

"Maybe. Or none at all. I fear for us now. I fear for the North" his voice faded in an ominous tone.

"I don't know. I think you're blowing things out of proportion."

"That may be so. But unfortunately, I'm not the only one" he finished and held his friend's gaze for a minute before turning back to the frozen landscape below him.

The noise was the first thing that reached them. The two friends in the tower steeled themselves and got their bows ready. For a few moments nothing but this screeching sound could be sensed, until a black shadow appeared in the sky. As the shadow crept closer, they could see that it was not one but two creatures, and they had wings. The two friends did not dare utter a word. But they both knew what those creatures were. Dragons.

No sooner had they raised the alarm than a spec of dust appeared in the horizon. As the cloud of dust got closer to the castle, the guards were able to make out the horses and the banners they were carrying: the grey direwolf of House Stark and a banner the North had not seen in years - a red three-headed dragon on a field of black.

"King Jon" the first man said pointing at the horses on the ground, "and the Targaryen Queen" he concluded raising his eyes into the sky at the dragons, one of which was indeed carrying a person.

A welcoming party left the gates to see to the incoming riders. Lady Sansa and Lady Arya were seen rushing about in the yard, pushing Lord Brandon in his chair. From the tower, the two soldiers saw their King come in through the gates and be greeted by his siblings. King Jon dismounted and waved his hand into the air. It was a cue. A screech was heard again and the two soldiers gasped and held their breath as the two dragons landed in the middle of the yard in Winterfell. It was a sight to behold: fire breathing creatures landing on the cold pale snow and a girl with the whitest hair the soldiers had ever seen.

Jon held out his hand and helped the girl off the dragon. He kissed her hand tenderly and then gave her a peck on her lips. He got on his knees and signaled for his siblings to do the same. Upon seeing the Ladies Stark courtesy and pay respects to the girl, everybody else in the yard mimicked their gesture.

"People of Winterfell" Jon's voice broke through the silence as he addressed the terrified crowd getting back on his feet. "I give you Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Queen of the Seven Kingdoms"

TBC

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 ** _Note_** : I am very disappointed in the new direction taken by the show: it goes completely against the spirit of the books and the first seasons.

At the beginning, if someone made a mistake, they paid. Characters like Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Tywin, Stannis, and others behaved in a much more honorable way throughout and were smarter and more pragmatic than the leading characters we have now, but when they made mistakes they had to pay. Most of their mistakes were justified or even logical given the circumstances and what they knew, and they did not even have such far reaching consequences. Now we have Jon, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Jaime, Tyrion behaving in extremely dishonorable ways and making lots of silly costly mistakes (most due to arrogance and stupidity) and not only are they not held accountable for them, but they are actually rewarded!

At the beginning characters acted upon what they knew. If it _looks like_ a duck, _swims like_ a duck, and _quacks like_ a duck, then it probably _is_ a duck. Then maybe, with more information and after other factors came into play, in hindsight it turned out that it was not a duck but a swan. Well, for the past three season, the quote has been changed to "Even though it _looks like_ a duck, _swims like_ a duck, _quacks like_ a duck, and I have no reason to think otherwise, somehow, I _know_ it is a swan. Why? Just because." This is ridiculous! Davos went to great risks to resurrect Jon and he had no idea who he was. Dany took a big risk trusting Tyrion when she had no idea who he was and it made a lot more sense to have him executed. Characters just appear to _know_ the truth for no reason. Now, after season 7, given the way the Starks have behaved, and especially if the truth about Lyanna comes out, there is no way the North can trust them. It looks very very suspicious. An omnipresent reader can know the truth, but that's not the way it looks. For the Northerners, if they look like liars, they sound like liars, they behave like liars, then, they are probably liars….

At the beginning, if a character found himself in a situation from which there was no way out, they died, regardless of who they were – main character or not. What set GoT apart was not that it dared to kill main characters, but that if a character had to die, they died. There were no unreal last minute rescues. Ned was imprisoned and he died. Cat and Robb were betrayed and they died. Drogo died from an infection and Robert from a boar's attack. But now, a little girl like Arya is stabbed countless times and falls into a dirty river and she survives, Jaime manages to swim one-handedly across a river while wounded and wearing full armour and Dany doesn't even bother looking for him when he is the main enemy, Jorah gets an incurable disease but somebody without medical background whatsoever finds a cure, etc. The plot armor that surrounds Jon is so silly it's not even funny anymore. He should be dead three times already! Davos had no business bringing him back and his resurrection made no sense. He should have died at the Battle of Winterfell where he was trampled over by horses and buried under thousands of corpses. He should have died together with his new gang when they were surrounded by the whitewalkers, that last minute rescue by Danerys was ridiculous. He should have died when he fell under freezing water and had a horde of zombies pulling him down. The fact that he was able to pull free, climb up and avoid the effects of hypothermia is laughable. And that last minute rescue by Benjen was just the icing of the cake in the most absurd of plot armors ever seen. This is the complete opposite of Game of Thrones.

So, here I wanted to go back to the original spirit of Asoiaf. Characters only know what they have seen or been told, if they mess up they have to pay, and if their mistake is too grave and there is no way back, then, they may even die. And given the way the characters behaved in seasons 6 and 7, there is a lot to pay for… Unless the producers pull more of these dues-ex-machina moments, laughable plot twists or silly cheese last minute rescues ...


	2. A Family Reunion

**_2) A family reunion. _**

The four reunited Stark siblings were holding a meeting in their late father's solar. King Jon sat at the head of the table with Sansa on one side and Arya on the other. Bran's chair had been pushed next to Sansa's. Four chairs were conspicuously empty, and the four people in the solar couldn't help but remember the four missing members of their family. They all looked at each other and nobody felt like breaking the silence. The tension was palpable in the air and the awkwardness cut like a knife.

"It's good to be back" Jon finally said, his sincere smile reaching both his ears. "I couldn't believe me eyes when I finally saw you again" he told Arya.

"Likewise" she replied warmly holding his hand on the table. "I missed you all these years"

"You too Bran. It's good to see you again" and his younger brother just nodded in reply.

"It's good to have you back, Jon" Sansa intervened.

"It feels good to be back" Jon smiled.

"Does it?" Sansa questioned him.

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"You took so long to come back and there were hardly any letters. For months I fretted about your fate not knowing if you had arrived safely at Dragonstone. Then, when I finally get news from you, it just said that you were coming back and that you were bringing the Queen with you. _Our Queen_ , the letter said. What happened?"

"I had to do it" he replied defensively.

"What is it that you had to do?"

"Make an alliance with her. We needed her dragons."

"Did that alliance include handing her the North?" Sansa insisted.

"I did not hand her the North"

"You just called her Queen of the Seven Kingdoms" Arya interjected. "Is the North not part of the Seven Kingdoms?"

"Well, yes, but …." Jon stammered.

"Is she our Queen?" Arya pressed him.

Jon held his breath for a few seconds and bit his lip. "Yes" he finally said.

"Why?" was all that Sansa asked.

"We needed her dragons. We needed her" Jon tried to plead with his sisters but only met steel gazes in return. "What would you have me do?" he asked, his eyes begging understanding.

"Well, not that, for starters" Sansa replied. "The people of the North named you their King. They did so freely, something that does not happen everyday. They had named Robb, and now they named you. And the first thing you do is surrender their trust to a foreign Queen" she cried shaking her head. "I had to lie for you, did you know?"

"Lie? To whom?"

"All the Lords. _Your_ Lords. They kept asking me about you. I had to cover for you and tell them everything was going according to plan, that you were working very hard for them, for us, for the North. I could not tell them I had no idea where you were. I could not tell them of the raven I received last month informing me of our new status in the realm. Why did you do it, Jon? Why?"

"Do you love her?" Bran spoke for the first time.

"No! I mean, love? No, I …" Jon stammered again.

"You kissed her in the yard" Arya observed with a tinge of hurt in her voice.

"Does that bother you?" Jon retorted.

"I'm not sure how I feel" she admitted. "I came back home hoping to see you all again only to find that you had already left. At least Sansa was here and Bran came back" she smiled timidly at her crippled brother. "Sansa and I have talked a lot. She said you kept ignoring her opinion and belittling her ever since you returned home" she continued, but when she looked at her sister for support she just lowered her gaze. "I have been listening to the men, the Lords, the soldiers. Many praise your courage and bravery and cheer for you. But many curse you for not listening to them and challenging Ramsay's army with no strategy. They say that you were rash and foolish, that many men died unnecessarily. Many claim that you have snubbed Sansa" her sad voice could not hide her disillusion. "I refused to believe that, but now I'm not so sure. You ignored my sister's counsel and bent the knee to a Targaryen Queen, the daughter of the Mad King, the man who killed our grandfather and uncle. I need to know why. Are you in love with her?"

"Yes" Jon finally admitted. "But that's not why I did it"

"All our lives my mother had ill thoughts of you. She feared you would take our place and betray us. For years I resented her and was angry on your behalf. Now I … I don't know Jon" she trailed unable to finish her own jumbled up thoughts.

"I did not betray you" he defended himself again.

"That's not the way it looks, Jon" Sansa replied. "You left and never wrote back. Then you sent news that you had surrendered your crown, the crown our men gave you of their own free will, to a foreign Queen. And now you show up with her and kiss her in front of everyone. I don't doubt your words. I do not doubt you, Jon. Neither does Arya, for that matter. But I had to lie and cover for you. I don't know that our men will like this new development or that they will even believe us."

"But we need her" Jon continued. "Without her dragons we have nothing, no way to fight this threat that looms closer and closer as we speak. We shouldn't waste what precious little time we have on some trivial squabbles!"

"You're right" Sansa agreed. "We are indeed running out of time. We received a raven from castle Black weeks days past. Apparently EastWatch by the Sea has fallen. The Wall collapsed and all the men perished there. The Maester was able to send a raven to Castle Black before the tower collapsed. The new Lord Commander, Edd Tollet wrote saying white walkers have been spotted on the south side of the Wall. We sent a reply right away, but have received no news since. His last letter mentioned blocks of the Wall falling and parts of the Wall cracking not too far away from Castle Black itself. It also mentioned a blue dragon that spits icy fire."

"Viserion" Jon sighed, covering his face with his hands.

"Who?"

"Daenerys had three dragons when I met her in Dragonstone. She considers them her children, and loves them as such. One of them died north of the wall fighting the Others." He took a deep breath and began his story. "We realized we needed to get Cersei's support in order to have a fighting chance against the Others. But we knew she would never help us unless we could convince her of the danger we were facing. So Tyrion came up with this plan to go capture a wight north of the Wall and take it to Cersei. Me and a few other men decided to undertake the mission."

"Jon, that was a stupid ass plan!" Arya yelled.

"We walked for miles until we found them" Jon continued ignoring her remark. "We managed to capture a wight, but at one point we found ourselves surrounded by white walkers. We sent one of our men, a young strong lad called Gendry, a smith from Kings Landing, back to EastWatch to get help"

"Gendry? Gendry was with you? Tall, dark hair?" Arya asked, her excitement seeping through.

"Do you know him? He's Robert Baratheon's bastard"

"Yeah, I met him. He helped me escape. And I helped him. But then we went our separate ways" she finished with a sad tone leaving no room for further discussion on the matter.

"So Gendry ran all the way back to EastWatch, they sent a raven to Daenerys at Dragosnstone, she flew North past the Wall and rescued us."

"But you said you were surrounded by white walkers. How come you were not attacked? It must have taken some time for this man Gendry to get back to Eastwatch, for the raven to arrive at Dragonstone and for your friend to find you so deep into the North" a disbelieving Sansa reflected. "Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely glad you survived, Jon, but I just don't understand."

"I don't know. I guess we got lucky" Jon replied shrugging his shoulders.

"So, what happened to the dragon? Visiyin? Visaenien?" Sansa insisted.

"Viserion. Drogon is the one she flies on. Rhaegal is the other one. So Dany arrived just in time to save us"

"Dany?" Arya snorted under her breath only to be hushed by her older sister.

"Daenerys arrived just in time to save us" Jon resumed with a sidelong glance at his sister. "She was flying Drogon while Rhaegal and Viserion stayed hovering above. We had the captured wight bound and tied. It was of the utmost importance that she returned with that wight. Which one and how many of us came back with her was immaterial. While the other men started to get on the dragon carrying the captured wight, I stayed behind fighting the creatures to give them time to escape."

"That was very brave of you, Jon" Arya said nodding her head in respect.

"Thank you Arya" he smiled timidly. "It was then that the Night King threw a spear and killed Viserion."

"But wasn't Viserion soaring up high in the sky? I thought you said Drogon was the one on the ground with Daenerys and all your men and that the other two dragons were flying out there up above. Why would the Night King aim for the moving target that is far away and not for the one on the ground?" Arya pondered aloud.

"I don't know. I guess we got lucky" Jon shrugged his shoulders.

"But Jon, you had plenty of time to get on the dragon. There was no need to stall" Bran's monotone voice suddenly came out. His tone was devoid of all emotion and there was no hint of accusation in it.

"Bran, what are you saying?" Arya asked fearful of the answer.

"I'm saying he had plenty of time. I saw it. He could have got on the dragon and flown away with the rest before the Night King even had time to throw the spear."

"Jon?" Arya beckoned him.

"I suppose I could have got on the dragon. I don't know. I felt that I needed to continue fighting."

"So, instead of getting on the dragon as soon as possible, you stalled unnecessarily and got the dragon killed?" Sansa concluded shaking her head. "Just like you rushed into battle against Ramsay with no plan and got most of your men killed? Jon!" Sansa cried disheartened.

"Well, maybe if I had known the Vale army was coming to aid us, I would have waited, instead of _rushing in with no plan_ " he exclaimed quoting her own expressions.

"I didn't know exactly when they were coming" she tried to explain. "But you wouldn't have listened anyway."

"I guess we'll never know, will we?" the question hang in the air.

"Was this before or after you surrendered to her?" Arya questioned him trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Before."

"Can you continue?"

"When Viserion fell, Dany was devastated. I was in the middle of a fight surrounded by white walkers. I yelled for Dany and the men to leave me. As I said, it was of the utmost importance she got back with the wight, the rest of us were irrelevant."

"That was brave Jon, again. Incredibly stupid, but brave."

"I was pulled underwater by the creatures but managed to pull free and climbed out of the water onto the ice. As I was making my way out, I was surrounded again. I thought that was it, that I would die. But you'll never guess who showed up" he gave a sad smile to his sisters. "Benjen."

"Uncle Benjen?" the two girls gasped in disbelief.

"Yes, he just happened to be riding by and started fighting the creatures giving me time to escape. He sacrificed himself for me."

"He was already dead" Bran's emotionless voice said.

"You got lucky. Again" Arya noted.

"I suppose. So I made my way back to EastWatch and arrived there before they had sailed back to Dragonstone. Between the cold and the wounds I had sustained in the fight, I was half dead by the time I arrived. I have no recollection other than waking up on a boat and Dany taking care of me."

"Let me guess, that's when she became _your Queen"_ Sansa said derisively. When no other reply was forthcoming she just shook her head. "You said she considered her dragons her children. You had one of them killed! I just can't picture Mother kissing Walder Frey and falling in love with him after he had Robb killed."

"Sansa!" Jon pleaded with her sister, but she just lowered her gaze.

"There are other things to learn, as well" Bran said cryptically.

"What do you mean?" Arya pressed him.

"Other things" he replied. "But in due time"

"So, what do we do now?" Arya asked after a long uncomfortable silence.

"We need to get ready for the white walkers!" Jon urged.

"But we need to tell our men the truth" Sansa added. "And I don't know which of the two I dread most"

Nothing else was said after that. The four siblings just looked at one another. There really was no anger or hard feelings between them, just dread and fear for what they knew was coming and had no idea how to face. But their problems were about to be doubled, as they failed to notice the presence of a little servant boy in the room.

TBC


	3. The Chosen Heroes

**_3) The chosen heroes. _**

After the tense meeting with her siblings Sansa tried to hurry back to her room. She needed privacy to sort out all the jumbled up thought in her head. But a voice she remembered all too well called her from behind before she could reach her destination.

"Lady Sansa" he said. "I longed to see you again"

"Lord Tyrion" she greeted her former husband back. "You look well"

"Yes, well, what with the sun of Mereen, the salt of the seas and the cold of the North, it has done wonders for my skin."

"I did miss that" she laughed back. "Your sense of humour".

"Ah, that's what all husbands long to hear from their estranged wives" he joked again.

"It's good that after everything you have been through, you have not lost your touch" she smiled again. "What happened after I left King's Landing?"

"Do you mean after I was abandoned and accused of a crime I did not commit and almost executed?"

"I had to leave" she replied in a way of apology. "I hope you understand that. I should have vouched for you when I had the chance."

"I heard you did vouch for another murderer" his accusation rang. When she just lowered her gaze abashedly, he continued. "I do not blame you" he told her reassuringly. "I admit, I was hurt at the beginning, but I do understand. You were just a scared child. Well, so I was accused of a crime I did not commit but would have loved to commit. I lost the trial by combat; my champion was more focused on getting his opponent to sing than on winning and he paid dearly for it. And then I escaped, but not without paying my debt first. A Lannister always pays his debts" he added with a wink.

"Your father?" she prompted.

"Yes. So I was taken across the sea to Essos and made my way to Daenerys Targaryen. I offered her my services, and here we are. Ready to save the world."

"What is it with that woman that has all the men bow to her whims?"

"Well, many things I suppose" he started.

"I imagine her long silver hair, beautiful face and perfect body have nothing to do with it" she said with contempt. "Or her dragons"

"No, of course that has nothing it do with it" he chuckled. "But maybe the fact that she is always defending the underdog and standing up for the abused."

"Just like she stood up for the Tarlys and other people whose only crime was to refuse to bend the knee to her?" she said catching him unawares. "Yes, we heard reports about that battle. I wonder about the morals of people who condone such an act" she hinted raising her eyebrows at him. "Did you know that Jon's friend, Sam, was Lord Tarly's son and Dickon's brother? We haven't told him yet about the fate of his family. Maybe your Queen should do so herself. You know, ever since we heard reports of that battle and how she killed anyone who dared refuse her, we truly feared for Jon. I mean, I knew he would flatly refuse to bend the knee, so I was afraid she would also kill him. How come she did not kill Jon, just like she killed others, when he took so long to submit to her?" Sansa questioned Tyrion, who was finding it difficult to reply. "Don't bother. I don't really need to know, I suppose. All that matters is that he is in fact still alive. And that he has indeed bent the knee."

"Do you resent him for that?"

"He was _our_ King, chosen by _our_ people. Just like Robb was. But he threw it away"

"I did wonder why they chose him. I mean, you are Lord Eddard's and Robb's rightful heir, and from what I heard of the battle against Ramsay, it was your army that won it."

"What's your point, Lord Tyrion?" she asked defensively.

"That you feel snubbed. By all rights it should have been you. Your Lords should have crowned you, not the bastard who lost the battle and deserted the watch" he said and waited for her answer.

"It is not my place to be Queen. I am but a girl" she replied matter-of-factly putting an end to a discussion she did not want to have.

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As the day progressed, the restlessness of the people in the castle increased. After the initial shock of what they had witnessed in the yard subsided, it gave rise to suspicions and questions. The soldiers were very wary of the two dragons soaring in the air. They wondered about this foreign girl whom their King had kissed and called _Queen._ Had their King married while on his trip? Had he surrendered his crown to this foreign Queen? Were the long forgotten Targaryens really back? Had they fought so hard not too many years ago to oust them and rid the land of this House only for them to be back as their monarch? Quiet whispers and secret conversations filled the day.

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It was after dinner that Jon and Sansa summoned selected people to a meeting. Bran and Arya were already in the solar when Jon arrived holding hands with Daenerys, much to Arya's chagrin. Sansa arrived not too long after that together with Brienne, and Sam lagged right behind them. Tyrion and his brother Jaime Lannister came in last.

"So, here we are. The chosen heroes" Tyrion started trying to break the ice of what would surely be another tense meeting.

"We have many things to discuss" Jon took the floor. "Let's obviate all the fancy welcomes and greetings for now. We have all had time to re-acquaint ourselves with loved ones we have not seen in a long time" he said looking at his own siblings, at Sam, at Sansa and Tyrion, at Tyrion and Jaime, at Jaime and Brienne. "It is time to set our minds to the task at hand"

"We have a common enemy to beat" Daenerys started. "We should all work together"

"Together as your subjects or as allies?" Arya challenged her. "Will you burn us if we don't surrender to you? Just like you had the Tarlys burned in the South when they refused you?" she finished with spite and turned her gaze at Sam.

"Ex-ex-excuse me?" was all that Sam could muster after everybody had gasped in horror and anticipation. "Did-did you burn my family?"

"They opposed me" Daenerys explained. "I had meant to set an example."

"With my family?" Sam replied enraged. "Jon, did you know about this?" he asked his friend, hurt seeping through his voice.

"I only heard about it after the fact."

"Were you going to tell me?"

"I was, I swear. I just haven't had time" Jon explained, but his excuse did not seem to fully satisfy a dejected Sam.

"Yes, we should not dwell" Tyrion tried to steer the conversation back on track. "I know there are many things we would like to say to each other and vent our frustrations or ask for explanations, but we have more important work to do."

"By now we have all heard of the threat that is coming from beyond the Wall" Jon continued. "This is an enemy the likes of which we have never fought before."

"But you have" Sam said, still not fully recovered from his grief and sense of betrayal.

"Yes, I have. And so have you" Jon nodded at his friend with respect. "So far we have gathered that an army of thousands of whitewalkers is making its way south. They cannot be killed but with dragonglass and valyrian steel. We have managed to obtain a large amount of dragonglass from the mines at Dragonstone and I have already given the armory and the smith instructions to imbed little pieces of glass in all our weapons: swords, lances, spears, arrows, even big rocks to be used in catapults."

"Will that be enough?" a concerned Sam asked.

"It will have to be" Jon smiled timidly.

"What about soldiers?" Brienne suddenly asked.

"After a long War for the Throne and the Battle to retake Winterfell our numbers have diminished severely" Sansa noted. "We have what remains of the Northern army, and the Vale men have pledged their support to us."

"To you" Tyrion countered.

"To us" she replied. "We also have what remains of the Wildling group Jon brought with him from Castle Black. I don't think we can count on any brothers from the Watch. We have received no news in weeks and what little news we did have were very grim. I don't hold up much hope of their survival. I'm sorry" she finished looking at Jon and Sam with sympathy.

"We have my men" Daenerys offered. "I have a large army of trained Unsullied and Dothraki at my command."

"Our command" Sansa said evenly.

"Our command" she acquiesced.

"What about the capital?" Arya asked. "Were you able to procure any men from Queen Cersei?"

"Not really" Jon shook his head. "She refused to see the danger and refused to help"

"Well," Tyrion started "it is a well known fact that I don't hold my sister in the highest of regards, but I cannot blame her on this one."

"What do you mean you cannot blame her?" Arya jumped in. "Didn't she see the captive wight you took? How can she not offer help?"

"She did agree to help. She only asked she would not be betrayed afterwards."

"Nobody betrayed her!" Jon yelled enraged.

"You did Jon, and so did you Your Grace" he addressed Daenerys. "All she asked was for a truce so we could focus on the common enemy. All she asked was that you would not gang up against her after the war – which is exactly what you did. You two plotted behind her back, behind all our backs, to ally yourselves together and have Daenerys be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. How can you expect my sister, or any other sovereign for that matter, to surrender to you under those terms? That's not the way you negotiate an alliance. Mind you, I don't trust my sister, and I'm not completely sure she would have helped us. But Your Graces" he said looking sternly at Jon and Daenerys " at the risk of sounding disrespectful and at the risk of having my head misplaced, I do have to say, this is a chance we missed. A chance you missed for not listening to your advisors."

"Jon!" Arya cried shaking her head. "What did you do?"

"The same thing all Stark men do" Jaime spoke for the first time. "Break vows and oaths and then boast about an honor they do not have. Your father did it, and so did your older brother. Now your bastard brother has done it too"

"Don't you dare speak of my father! Or my brothers! You should be the last one to speak of honor, Kingslayer, traitor. You pushed my little brother off a window and attacked my father. We should have your head now!"

"Oh, but I never claimed I was honorable, did I?"

"Enough!" Daenerys ordered slamming her hand on the table.

"You don't give me orders" Arya challenged her. "This is my House, not yours, and you're not my Queen."

"No, but this is my house too and she is my Queen" Jon defended her.

"How could you?" Arya sounded hurt.

"Arya, I never meant any harm. You need to know that. I did this for us, for all of us" he pleaded.

"This is getting us nowhere" Sansa tried her luck. "Whatever we have all done is in the past. We should look forwards: to the war at hand. We'll sort out who's King or Queen when we win" she said and everybody nodded in agreement.

"There is nothing to sort out" Bran's monotone voice came out.

"What do you mean?"

"There is only one rightful King."

"What are you talking about?"

"King Aegon Targaryen" Bran said turning his eyes to Jon.

"Who's Aegon Targaryen?" Daenerys asked. "I'm the last of my family!"

"Not quite" Sam quipped nervously.

"Jon, you are not who you think you are" Bran started. "You are not my father's son, but the son of my aunt Lyanna and your brother Rhaegar" he said looking at Daenerys.

"It is common knowledge that Rhaegar kidnapped and abused Lyanna. I didn't know that they had had a son" Tyrion's worried voice cut through the tense silence.

"But my aunt was not kidnapped and abused" Bran continued. "They eloped together and got married in secret. They had a son named Aegon. Unfortunately Rhaegar fell in battle and my aunt died of complications after the birth of her son. My father arrived just in time and took the baby as his own, a bastard whom he called Jon Snow"

"Father lied to me?" Jon whispered in disbelief.

"He lied to us all" Sansa added to their confusion. "He lied to mother. She died never knowing that father had not been unfaithful to her."

"But what he did was even worse than being unfaithful for one night!" Arya could not hide her disillusion. "He lied to her for their entire marriage! He lied to Jon his whole life! He made them suffer and kept the truth from them. Mother would have loved you if she had known. And you wouldn't have been a bastard."

"Oh, the famous Stark honor!" Jaime chimed in.

"Did you know about this?" Jon suddenly asked Sam.

"I .. I did .. but not really. I found out when I was in the Citadel and then your brother Bran shared his visions with me and we put two and two together and we …" he trailed.

"Were you going to tell me?" Jon asked him echoing their previous argument.

"That does not necessarily mean his claim is stronger than mine" Daenerys interrupted.

"Actually, yes it does" Arya smirked smugly. "Jon, you've been sleeping with your aunt!" she taunted him further.

"Arya, enough!" her older sister admonished her. "That leads us nowhere."

"Well, what's done is done" Tyrion tried in a conciliatory tone. "Again, let's look to the future, not the past. And not too much into the future. Let's forget about crowns for now. There will be no throne to claim if we lose this war."

Sleep didn't come easily that night. There were too many things on everyone's minds: new developments, new discoveries, new truths. And they were all seething with uncertainty and anxiety. But grave matters such as these should be discussed with the utmost care. None of them was aware of the presence of a little servant boy.

TBC


	4. Revolution in the Backyard

**_4) Revolution in the backyard. _**

After the tense meeting the day before, the mood in Winterfell was quite grim. There were court greetings and polite nods when the Starks joined the Lannister brothers and Daenerys for breakfast the following morning.

Jon decided to address his people as soon as possible so he had them all summoned in the yard after they had broken their fast. He stood in the balcony side by side with Daenerys, with Sansa standing to his left. Arya and Bran were next to Sansa, and Tyrion and Jaime next to Daenerys. Sam and Brienne were standing behind. Below, everybody who was currently staying at Winterfell: Vale Lords and their soldiers, Northern Lords and their soldiers, Wildlings, Unsullied, servants, cooks, smiths, in short, anybody who would lend a hand in the _fight for the living._ Jon took a deep breath and took a step forward.

"People of North. People of the Vale. People of Essos. We need to forget where we come from and band together to fight a common enemy. As you may very well know, there is a threat the likes of which we have never seen before lurking at our doorstep. I will not lie to you nor will I soften my words, for we should all be prepared and aware of what is coming" he said and waited for everybody to calm down.

"The white walkers have awoken and the Night King is leading them. I have already fought them, and they are not an enemy we can beat easily. Other men who have also stood by me beyond the Wall will testify to the utter importance of our work here. This is our last stand. Should the white walkers venture past Winterfell into the South, there will be no stopping them. Their army grows with every enemy they defeat, turning dead soldiers into part of their army" he continued and allowed his people a moment for the information to sink in.

"We have received news that Eastwatch by the Sea has already fallen and we are not very hopeful for Castle Black. We have received no news in days, and their last communication was dire. We know that the Night King has got himself a dragon, much like the ones flying up above our heads. But we have two things in our advantage. They are not an army of men who can think, they are just beasts. And also, we have a way to stop them: dragonglass and valyrian steel. Queen Denerys and I have brought dragonglass from the mines in Dragonstone and our smiths working as we speak to add little studs of glass into our weapons. I believe we can win this. Two of our dragons can best one of theirs. And our men with the right weapons can best creatures with no thinking ability. We can do this. For the living!" he finished with clenched fists in the air hoping for a loud roar of approval and cheer. But none was forthcoming, only low whispers and muted conversations. Jon and his companions at the balcony were at a loss.

"Is that all?" a loud voice rang out from the group of people below.

"For now" Jon replied defensively. "We need to band as one and bring our strength together" Jon tried to rally the men again. "For the Living!" he cheered.

"But you're not telling us everything" the same man challenged him. "We know the truth now, but we want to hear it from you" he directed his anger at the nine people in the balcony.

"Aye, it is time you came clean with us" another man supported him.

"We know how the Night King got his dragon: a foolish plan by the Lannister Imp that our gracious King Jon botched."

"You doomed us all you fools!"

"Just like when you had us fight the Boltons with no strategy! You led us like rabbits onto the battlefield. You led us to our deaths."

"Where are the men from the Capital? The Lannister army? All we got from Queen Cersei is a useless, one-handed fool! You botched our chances of getting more men!"

"And who is this babbling, incompetent, fat boy who is now part of the Council? Where did he come from? How can he call himself a Brother when he has a wife and a baby?"

"Fat boy was a Brother and he left. Jon was also a Brother and he left. Do these oaths no longer matter? Do these oaths mean nothing to you anymore?"

"And who is this foreign Queen?"

"Will you have us burned if we don't bend the knee like you've done to others?"

"You're a tyrant! Just like your father was!"

"What is she doing in our House? Why did you surrender our trust to her? You betrayed us!"

"Why bring a Targaryen after we fought so hard against them? My father and uncles died fighting them! Fighting the monster that had abducted our beloved Lady Lyanna. Fighting to avenge our beloved Lord Rickard. And it was all a lie! Lyanna lied to her people."

"And now we hear that Lord Eddard knew about it from the beginning and kept the truth from us, taking us to war under false pretenses."

"I bet you all knew as well! That's why you went to negotiate with the Targaryen Queen in the first place. The Starks have given our lands and our freedom to the Targaryens."

"Were you planning to hand our country to her once the fighting was over?"

"I chose a Stark as my King, but now I question my choice."

"You and all your petty squabbles to see who should be our King. Is it Jon? Is it the Targaryen girl? Is it Sansa? It should be none of you!"

"The Starks have been lying to us for years while we do their bidding!"

"Many of us died fighting for Lord Eddard in Robert's Rebellion and it was all a lie. Many of us died fighting for King Robb and the fool breaks a vow that gets them all killed. Many of us fought with Jon for Winterfell, and the fool got our friends killed by recklessly rushing in with no plan. It was the Vale army brought in by Lord Baelish that saved us. And how was his kindness repaid by the Starks? He was murdered in cold blood."

"I see you now making great friends with the Tagrayens and the Lannisters, people who have caused so much grief to the North, but keeping us, your loyal servants who have fought and died for you, in the dark!"

"We had to find out by chance through a boy. Were you even going to tell us any of this? Or did you mean to keep the truth from us and have us think you were all these great heroes?"

"I piss on the Stark honor!" the crowd roared in anger much to the confusion of the Stark family and their friends up on the balcony.

"Silence" a piercing cry was uttered by a feminine voice accompanied by the shriek of the two dragons soaring up above. "If you do not remain quiet and listen I will be forced to act" Daenerys threatened the angry crowd. "Dracarys" she yelled at the sky and one of the dragons started to spit fire into the air. When the crowd was silent she continued.

"I do not want to threaten you. I mean to rule you. My name is Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons" she addressed the men before her. "Everything Jon has told you is true. We need to put all these arguments behind us and band together for the common good" but she was crudely interrupted by a rock landing on her face.

"You are not my Queen" the young woman who had thrown the rock yelled back. "None of you are" she said pointing at the Starks in the balcony. "House Stark is not my Liege House any more"

Having uttered those words, she turned around and started heading for the gate. Other people followed her and not long after that, there was a trail of Northerners making their way out of the castle.

The Vale Lords also resented the fact that their newly pledge loyalty had been squandered and given away to a foreign Queen. "If you have lied to your own people who have chosen you of their own free will, what will you do with us?" one Lord questioned.

"It was our army that won the battle and saved your lives. However, the credit that should have gone to us went to that good for nothing traitor that has doomed us all with his arrogance."

"If Lady Sansa lied at the Eyrie to defend Lord Baelish after he had killed her aunt, why did she have him killed now? She made us look like fools!" Lord Royce bellowed. "We are no longer pledged to House Stark" he declared. His departure was soon followed by the rest of the Vale entourage.

Arya watched in astonishment and disbelief. "They are all leaving" she cried desperately.

"And this was all our doing" Sansa murmured.

The watchman in the tower followed with his eyes the trail of men and women marching. The knights of the Vale led by Lord Royce himself were heading south on the Kings Road, while the Northern soldiers were scattered along the landscape, each party making its own way home. But he suddenly lost interest in the group of people leaving. Something in the horizon caught his attention.

"I see them" the man in the tower cried pointing at a spec of dust rapidly approaching the castle from the North. "The white walkers are here"

TBC


	5. The Last Stand

**_5) The Last Stand_**

"The white walkers are here!" the watcher's desperate cry still rang in the air. He blew his horn and prayed that the people who had left would return. Most men heading north were still scattered all over the field and were easy prey for the army of the dead marching upon them. Some of the men managed to make it back into Winterfell and the army of the Vale also turned around and returned to the castle. But the mutiny that had just taken place prevented them from gearing up properly and being ready for the battle that was coming.

The few people that had remained in the yard were in a state of complete disarray and the castle was a chaos. The wedge that had just been created between the Stark family and their subjects was amplified by the untimely arrival of this dangerous threat. The Starks and their friends had barely had time to recover from the blow they had received from their people and were not ready to step into action. But whether they were ready or not, they had no choice. By tacit agreement, the rulers of Winterfell and the men and women in the yard reached an unspoken understanding of truce: they would put their disagreements and suspicions behind to fight the common enemy together. After the war for the living was won, they would be able to sort out the revolution that had began to stir inside the walls of Winterfell.

Jon commanded the men to run to the armory and grab as many weapons as they could. Begrudgingly they complied, but not without a tinge of resentment at being ordered by a man they no longer considered their leader. All the fighting men and women readied themselves for the fight of their lives. By the time the horde of white walkers was at their doorstep, the army of the living was ready, or at least as ready as it would ever be. As Jon had said, this was their last stand.

"We don't have enough men" Tyrion murmured next to Jaime.

"Stupid Northmen and their pride. Count on a Northman to die before the fight even begins" he replied pointing at the dead bodies on the field north of Winterfell.

"We could have used Cersei's men and Euron's army" Tyrion continued.

"It was your boy and your Queen that lost them"

"Stupid Northmen and their pride?" came Tyrion's dry comment, eliciting a mirthless chuckle from his brother.

Arms at the ready, arrows nocked, catapults loaded, the army of the living waited. They waited and prayed, some to the Old Gods, some to the Seven, some to whichever god would listen. Standing at the top of the tower, Jon waited for the invaders to be close enough before giving the order. The catapults were the first weapon to be deployed, followed by the arrows. By having pieces of dragongalss and valyrian steel studs imbedded in both the rocks and the arrows and by having them set on fire, they were hoping to deal a major blow to the incoming enemy. And a blow they dealt, but not as devastating as they had hoped. The Night King, who was sitting atop his newly acquired dragon, had anticipated this move. Viserion had little problem batting the flying rocks and arrows away and putting out the flames with its icy blue spit.

The advancing horde looked like a tidal wave making its quick way towards the walls of Winterfell and there appeared to be no stopping them. To make matters worse, arrows started to fall on the yard inside, freezing the unsuspecting soldiers with their frozen heads, turning them into human-shaped icicles. Sam ordered for a pyre to be built and for the dead bodies to be burned, lest they turned into whitewalkers themselves. It was Sansa who undertook the grim task of leading the group in charge of burning the bodies of their fallen comrades. With great sadness and as much respect for the dead as they could given their current urgency, they began to pull the bodies away from the field and onto the pyre. A Septa, finding herself of no other use, decided to bless the deceased before they burned. It was not a question of _which_ God would receive them, but of actually _reaching_ a God and not becoming a demon.

Daenerys waited no time and jumped on her dragon. Someone had to stop the Night King and, much to her sorrow, Viserion. If anyone was going to put her child to rest, it had to be her. She petted Rhaegal tenderly and motioned for him to accompany her as she mounted Drogon. Whispering sweet words to her children, they flew into the air to kill Viserion – her beloved baby, their beloved brother.

She flew as close as she could and tried to yell at Viserion, but to no avail. Either he could not hear her with the constant roar of the battle below them, or he was forever out of her maternal reach. Much to her horror, Viserion only answered to the Night King now. Seeing no other way out, she steeled her emotions and readied her heart to do a task no mother should ever be forced to perform: kill their own children. Watching him die had been hard enough and her mind went back to that fateful day on the ice beyond the Wall: the landscape had been as bleak as her heart. But this was even worse.

She had ordered Rhaegal to fly over the white walkers and set as many as he could on fire, and he was doing an admirable job bringing down the numbers of the army of the dead considerably. She turned her mind to Drogon and flew to stand face to face with Viserion. Both dragons opened their mouths at the same time. Cold against hot, blue against red, ice against fire. Daenarys lost concentration momentarily as she heard a familiar voice cry down below. She looked to the ground and saw Jon in the midst of a bloody combat with the creatures. Fearing for his safety she lost focus for a second. But that second was enough for Viserion to take advantage of. His icy flame changed direction and it caught Drogon on the side. Dazed and confused Drogon hovered with no direction, a fact that was used by the night King to charge his dragon against him. The impact caused Daenerys to lose her grip on the scales and she almost fell off. She was dangling, barely grabbing on to Drogon's neck. Drogon was torn between staying still to give his mother time to climb up again or charging against his brother. In the end, that hesitation proved fatal as Viserion managed a large intake of air and breathed the largest ice flame he could muster towards Drogon and Daenerys enveloping them in a cloud of blue.

Unable to sense his mother and his other brother, Rhaegal only managed to stand still. In a state of utter confusion he flew directly to where Daenerys had fallen. Viserion took the chance to finish off his other brother. A large icy blue flame enveloped the last living dragon as it fell to the ground below.

Back on the battlefield, Jon watched in horror as his beloved Dany and her dragons fell to the ground just outside Winterfell in the heart of the army of the dead. The creatures wasted no time putting an end to the lives of his Queen and her dragons. He found fortitude in this devastating loss. With a passion he didn't even know he had he started dealing blows right and left taking as many wights and whitewalkers with him as he could. He looked to his side and saw his men doing the same. His strength fueled the men fighting with him and together they had become quite a formidable force. But there was only so much they could do against an army that would barely sustain losses. He saw his men fall one after the other, their blades dropped on the ground with an ominous clank. He heard a cry and saw as Jaime Lannister was mauled to the ground. In her efforts to save a dying Jaime, Brienne was attacked and killed as well. And Jon knew he was next. He had been extremely lucky so far and he knew he should be dead. He still didn't know why Davos had brought him back to life back at Castle Black. He knew he should have died in this very same field when he fought Ramsay, but Sansa had saved him. He should have died when he fought these very same creatures far away in the North, but Dany had saved him and then his Uncle Benjen. But nobody was coming for him this time. As he looked around, he saw most his friends had fallen and he found himself surrounded by his enemies; he knew this time there would be no last minute rescue.

With no other dragon to contend with, the Night King flew over Winterfell taking as many people as he could. He had won in the air, but his army still had to win the fight on the ground, a fight which would prove much easier if he had more soldiers. He flew his dragon straight to where the pyre was and put it out. Without a fire to burn the bodies of the fallen men, he would have a huge supply of new recruits to add to his roster once the fighting was over.

Arya found herself fending off the creatures closer to the Gate. She looked just in time to see the blue dragon fly over Winterfell and on to where the pyre was burning. She closed her eyes for a minute when she realized what the intentions were. She was unable to do anything as the flames came down on the pyre and the people working on it. She was able to make out a flash of red hair before everything became a white blue puff of smoke. "Sansa!" she cried to herself as the tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Up in the battlements Sam, Tyrion and Bran were overseeing the fighting below. They watched as their loved ones were falling one by one. This was not a war they could win. The Army of the dead was quickly gaining on them and tearing them apart. There were bodies strewn everywhere; bodies which, because they had not burned, would turn into more of these creatures. "Send the ravens" Tyrion said gravely. "We need to warn them." A young boy ran all the way to the rookery and a few minutes later a flock of ravens flew into the sky.

Bran stood still as he saw the last raven take flight and the tower collapse in a heap of blue smoke. The night King hovered over the castle on his dragon setting Winterfell on fire and destroying it wall by wall. The last surviving Stark looked at the yard and all he saw was a carnage: body parts and long forgotten blades dotted the ground. And the only bodies that moved, were no longer human. He felt a strange sensation in his heart and something falling down his cheek. It took him a minute to realize it was a tear.

TBC

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Sorry! But as I said in my first notes: when you have made too many silly costly mistakes and there is no way out ... you do have to pay ...

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Most of what ALL the main characters (Jon, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Tyrion, Jaime, etc) have done in the past couple of seasons is monumentally stupid and downright dishonorable. Yes, in previous seasons, many characters made mistakes. But their msitakes were mostly due to lack of information or only became mistakes in hindsight after other factors came into play. Most of what the characters did in previous seasons made sense and most decisions were logical (even if they ended up being incorrect in the end). But now these characters just make mistakes out of arrogance and sheer stupidity and they are not held accountable for them! In all the previous seasons and in the books, if a character messed up so badly, they had to pay. In fact, most of the characters who have made mistakes are dead, even if their mistakes were not so serious or did not have such serious consequences or if their mistakes were justified. If all these characters we see _now_ had behaved so stupidly and arrogantly and had made such costly blunders in a previous season or in the books, somebody would have stopped them and they would most likely be dead by now. In the previous seasons there is no way Jon would have been resurrected for no reason watsoever, or would have survived the Battle agaisnt Ramsay or that stupid adventure North of the Wall! Nobody had such ridiculous plot armor! But too much plot armor ends up killing the character. And that's just very bad writing! It goes completely against the original spirit of Asoiaf!

The producers had the material (and the budget) to make the best show on telvision that would be talked about for decades; what the X files was to the sci-fi genre or Friends to comedy. But they blew it! For a show that will last 8 seasons, it was only good for half of it. Incidentally, the only four seasons that made sense were the ones based on GRRM's material. It was when the producers started coming up with their own ideas that it started to go downhill, season 7 being the lowest of the low - in terms of plot and character development. The plotlines are corny and cliched, the lines are cheesy and the characters have as much depth as Peppa Pig. Dora the Explorer is more complex and has more depth than Jon or Davos or Tyrion or Jaime! And that really makes me angry ...


	6. And now it ends

**_So now .. on to the final chapter ... Thank you all for sticking around. Thanks for all the comments (both good and bad)._**

 ** _._**

 ** _6) And now it ends …_**

 _ _Pyke:_ _

"Have you seen this?" the captain asked his King picking up the parchment they had received earlier that day. .

"Aye," replied Euron Greyjoy all too calmly. He leaned back on his chair and looked out the window. "I have" he toyed with his crown and nodded his head in response.

The captain returned the parchment to the desk and looked at his King. "Are you not in the least worried?"

Euron removed a dagger from a scabbard tied to his belt. He tossed it in the air and grabbed it by the handle before throwing it towards the desk. It landed right on the parchment, nailing it to the wooden surface. "Should I be?"

"With all due respect, Your Grace, according to this letter the white walkers have invaded the continent. We both saw it at the dragon pit back at the capital. We both saw what that thing could do, and that was only one of them. A whole army is making its way towards us" the captain offered wary of his unpredictable King's response.

"Aye, I saw it" he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "And I asked Jon Snow a question. Do you remember?"

"I- I only remember the creature, Your Grace" he stuttered in a barely audible voice.

"I said, do you remember my question to Jon Snow?" Euron grabbed him by the scuff of his neck and pulled his face so close to his that the spit from Euron's growl landed right between the poor captain's eyes.

Timidly, the captain shook his head. "No, Your Grace. I apologize"

Euron pushed him to the floor and walked to the window. "I asked him if they could swim. Do you remember his answer?"

"He said they couldn't" the captain replied slowly getting back on his feet.

"Look at the window captain. What do you see?"

"The ocean, Your Grace"

"Exactly" Euron said making his way purposefully towards his captain. "We're safe" he added giving him a soft but painful slap on his cheek. "Let the creatures come and kill them all. Come Summer, the creatures will retire back North and we'll be the only ones left alive. The continent will be ours for the taking."

.

.

 _King's Landing: _

"Have you seen this?" Maester Qyburn asked his Queen picking up a parchment from a desk.

"Yes, I have" Cersei replied taking another sip of her wine.

"It's dire news, Your Grace"

"Do you think I don't know that?" she hissed and brought her hand down to her stomach.

"With all due respect, Your Grace, you shouldn't be drinking in your condition."

"Are you concerned for my baby now?" she countered finishing the content of her glass in one gulp and tossing the goblet towards her Maester. "I think you have more pressing matters now than whether I take a drink or not"

"What do you intend to do?"

"There is nothing to do. You saw what that thing did, you inspected it yourself. If these savage Northmen who know nothing but fight and their arrogant Queen with her dragons couldn't stop them, what makes you think we can?"

"What do you suggest?"

"Isn't that your job? To come up with solutions?" she spat back.

"I think we should leave."

"I was thinking the same thing" she murmured sadly. "Have the boats ready. We'll take as many workers as we can. Leave the highborn lords and ladies, I don't want to hear their silly arguments and petty whining any longer. Take able men and woman who can work: smiths, bakers, cooks, carpenters, painters. Make sure that they are healthy. And take our best soldiers"

"I will your Grace."

"Do it in secret. We don't want nosy people asking questions and begging to be saved. We'll meet back at the port tonight."

Cersei spent the rest of the day reminiscing about her life. How she had come this far, but never really achieved what she wanted; how she had fought so hard to get so close. There was always something or someone getting in the way: Robert and his selfishness, Ned Stark and his arrogant nosiness, her father and his way of putting her down just because she was a woman - he could never see her strength beyond her feminine exterior, her brother Tyrion and his airs of superiority undermining everything she did, her brother Jaime and his blatant lack of guts, the Tyrell crone and how she killed her beloved Joffrey, the Martells and their bastards killing her daughter – she gave an inward smirk of sadistic satisfaction at the thought of Elaria watching her last living girl die right in front of her, Jon Snow and his Targaryen Queen with their snobbish sense of superiority and how they thought their shit didn't stink – _I bet their rotting corpses do stink now,_ she laughed to herself. And now, when she was rid of all the human elements that stood in her way, here comes this threat from beyond. Life was not fair.

Getting up on her feet again she beckoned her loyal Ser Robert Strong and ordered him to take her to the newly appointed Commander of the Kingsguard – a position her brother Jaime had decided to decline.

"Is everything in order?" she asked him when they were all alone in his office.

"It is Your Grace. Everything is in place" the Commander replied solemnly.

"Thank you. You have served me well"

"It is an honor, Your Grace"

Cersei looked at him and offered an insincere sweet smile. "Ser Robert, you know what to do" she said quietly and turned around. She closed the door behind her but not before the desperate cries of her Commander reached her ears.

It was just before sunset when she made her way to the port. She could see the almost one hundred boats of her fleet and wished she had kept Euron's fleet. _But would it really change things?_ , she wondered. The assorted group of people she met at the quay was not what she had always envisioned would be her party of royal subjects for her long and prosperous reign. She greeted Qyburn and saw the confused and panicked faces of the crowd as they were being herded into boats. Nobody dared refuse and the few that did paid dearly. _They have no idea what's coming. They have no idea they are better off with me than here._

When the boats were loaded to capacity, the order was given the fleet set sail towards the east on Blackwater Bay. The seas were calm and the sails were stretched allowing for a smooth sailing. Cersei looked at her city as it receded in the distance. Then she started counting …

 _Boom!_ A loud explosion filled the air and green smoke filled the sky above the once great city of King's Landing. She tried to filter the desperate cries of the people on board the ships. They cried for their lost loved ones who had remained on the ground and were now nothing but charred ashes.

"Your Grace, what have you done?" Qyburn asked her warily.

"What I had to"

"Your Grace?" Qyburn insisted pointing at the smoldering ruins.

"They had outlived their usefulness. I was not about to leave them there for the Army of the Dead. I refuse to give those creatures additions to their numbers. I made use of my subjects the way I saw fit. Dying here is better than becoming one of them. Their sacrifice will be honored when this is all over. Come Summer, the white walkers will retire to the North and we'll return" she explained in an even voice devoid of emotion.

"Of course Your Grace. Wise move" he told her, but her gaze was now lost in the distance.

"I have lost everything" she muttered after a long silence. "My children. My brothers. My father. My kingdom. I am the Queen of Ashes." She grabbed the railing forcefully and pressed her lips together. "But I am still here, am I not? Where are those who defied me?" she spat venomously.

"They have all perished, My Queen"

"And we" she addressed him with a newly found authority "have a new Kingdom to forge."

"Where are we going?"

"Pentos for now. It's the closest city. We'll make our way from there."

"If you don't mind me asking you, how did you manage to set the fires from the boat?" he wondered trying to conceal his hurt at having been left out.

"A good leader has the right men in the right positions" she replied and pointed at a small dot on the sea slowly approaching the ship.

Qyburn squinted against the setting sun to make out a small rowing boat with a man as big as a mountain on it. His muscled big arms allowed him to row faster than the average man and it didn't take too long for Ser Robert Strong to catch up with them and climb on board.

"Good job", Cersei greeted her staunch bodyguard.

Sparing a last glance at the smoking city she turned around directed her gaze at the assorted motley crew on board her ship, knowing the other boats carried a similar load. Then she turned her eyes to the east. To the open sea. To Essos. To a new beginning.

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 _ **THE END**_

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Thank you all so much for reading! Sorry about the ending, but after what happened in season 7, I really can't see any other believable ending without pulling more of these impossible miraculous saves and convenient plot twist (Jon sprouting wings, Bran learing how to physically fly, The Night King getting diarreah and having to leave the battle field, etc) ... We'll just have to wait and see what D&D do ...

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I usually like to respond to all the people who review the story and leave comments (both good and bad). If you have an account you have probably received a reply.

 ** _To Guest 1 reviewer and Marvelmyra_** :

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read and review even if you are not completely satisified. I really appreciate the feedbak. I wish you had an account so I could reply to you in private and you could have the chance to reply back. This way, you will write your final comment for this last chapter and I will have no way to get back to you. So yes, real life is full of impossible rescues and we've all heard stories of implausible survivals. But only so many. I can take the occasional last minute rescue to save my favourite character or a convenient plot twist. But not three seasons of anything but!

 _Cheating Death in ridiculous ways_ : Jon should have died three times (his resurrection made no sense, he should have died at the Battle against Ramsay and against the white walkers in Tyrion's impossible mission); Jaime two times (in Dorne when he attacked an armed fortress in broad daylight and with no back up, and when he fell -or was tackled- into a river wearing heavy armour, which makes it very hard to remain afloat - let alone two people swimming together, one of them one-handed); Arya (she was stabbed countless times and fell into a dirty river); Theon (there's no way he could have beaten a burly thug when he was so weak and fragile); Sansa and Tyrion jumped a wall and fell onto the snow with no scrapes or bruises. And I bet many fan favourites (Tormund, Gendry) survived the fall of Eastwatch by the Sea at the end of season 7. I can accept two or three situations, but this is just too much.

 _Believing in people for no reason (other than the fandom knowing the truth)_ : Davos had absolutely no reason whatsoever to resurrect Jon; what reason would he have to think Jon was the "best option for survival" and risk being killed in a mutiny he had no business getting involved in and invoke Melisandre's magic? In fact, it served his purposes to want for Jon to remain dead since the majority of the Brothers took part in the mutiny and he was hiding with just a handful of men. He had no reason to see Jon as a hero and a lot of reasons to think he was a bad apple: a leader who can't communicate and fails to support his own people in favour of strangers. With Jon dead, he would get the support of the new Lord Commander and be back on his merry way to his family (as you said). Why risk his life for a stranger who meant nothing to him and had been accused of being a traitor by the majority? Can you picture Hot Pie standing in front of the Sept of Baelor as Ned was about to be beheaded and freeing Ned from his chains, risking is life for a man that meant absolutely nothing to him and who, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be a guilty traitor? It's the same! Also, the Sand snake (can't remember which one) had no reason to give Bronn the antidote; Dany had no reason to trust Tyrion and make him her advisor (in fact, she should have had him executed the minute Jorah brought him); Dany and Jon had absolutely no reason to trust each other and fall in love (in fact, given the way they behaved towards one another and what they did, they had more reason to hate each other than to fall in love. Dany had burned or punished anybody else who would refuse her, why not Jon? What reason did she have to trust him? Especially after he was responsible for her baby's death!). There is a pattern of trusting people for no reason other than the _fans_ knowing they are worth trusting. But the characters themselves do not know this. Can you imagine Catelyn suddenly believing Tyrion for no reasons when he said he had not tried to kill Bran when everything pointed at his guilt?

 _Being just too lucky_ : Davos was way too lucky when he found Shireen's toy in the snow; Jorah and Daario were just too lucky to find Dany's ring in the middle of nowhere; Jorah was way too lucky that Sam (who had no medical training whatsoever) was able to find a cure to an incurable disease. Can you imagine Robb suddenly finding a lost raven with a letter from Tywin to Frey about the Red Wedding?

People changed allegiances and supported Jon for no reason (he lost the battle, he did not win it, just as Joffrey did not win in Blackwater Bay: Tyrion, Tywin and the Tyrells did, but Joffrey took credit); the Ironmen changed allegiances and supported Theon for no reason after that Disney fight at the beach. Can you imagine Ned standing at the Sept of Baelor before his execution giving a speech about his honor and then people just changing sides for no reason and cheering for him to become King instead of being executed?

 _Stupid decisions that are successful_ : Jon goes into battle with no strategy and wins; Tyrion comes up with a stupid plan and it succeeds (his only idea in three seasons!); Bran, Arya and Sansa come up with a far-fetched conspiracy and mock execution and it succeeds; Bronn and Jaime attack a fortress with no plan and no backup and come out unscathed. Meanwhile, the Blackfish had the chance to go to Wintefell and get more men to retake Riverrun but decided to stay and die; Baelish, the smartest person by far, is duped by three brats.

 _Not being held accountable for misdeeds_ : Jon lied, belittled, ignored and betrayed people; Sansa lied countless times; the young Starks killed a man in cold blood and made it look like an execution; Dany and Jon plotted behind everyone's backs; Tyrion condoned the killing of honorable rivals whose sole crime was not bending the knee to a despotic foreign invader and remaining patriotic (had that been a Stark people would have called them honorable); Daenerys just killed whoever dared oppose her (well, except Jon, of course), and yes, killing the Tarlys is the act of a ruthless despot; Arya just killed people right and left regardless of how justified she may think she was; etc, and they ALL got away with their crimes - something unimaginable in earlier seasons when people paid for their mistakes and misdeeds.

… So, as I said, I can take two or three convenient twists and stetching the realm of what is plausible, but not a whole show. The show has changed radically and become something it was not. In fact, it is now the opposite of what it used to be. Many people like it better this way, all the better for them. For me it feels like _Vikings_ suddenly turning all fluff and comedy or _The Backyardigans_ suddenly becoming porn - losing its most distinctive features and everything that made it good and becoming a completely different show.

… And YES I admit, having a little boy serve as the vehicle through which the people find out IS cheap. But I'm not a professional writer and do not have HBO backing me. I do this on my spare time (which is not much) and do not have a whole crew of poeple working for me. And to be honest, I was not very satisfied with the way I did it. I needed the people in Winterfell to find out about all these things, but I don't think the Starks, Daenerys, the Lannister brothers, Brienne, Sam, etc would have told the people all the details. The truth incriminated them and made them look like idiots! So I needed for them to find out without being told, and that's also part of the reason why the people felt cheated and betrayed - they were kept in the dark. I suppose I could have had the people conveniently find secret documents, like they did in the show. Or just magically know things they had no way of knowing, like they did in the show. Or somebody just teleporting and by chance blurting out the truth for no reason. I chose a young boy – that's my convenient deus ex machina. But it's _only one_. (Honestly, I couldn't come up with a better idea, so if you want to help me I would appreciate it!) … I hope you liked the ending and find it plausible … Thanks.

 _ **Guest 2:**_ _Thanks! Yeah, I know it's not D &D's fault George has not finished the books yet. But they knew what they were getting into when they signed. Do you follow football? Imagine you manage a team that includes Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Suarez, Salah, Buffon, etc and you win all the cups. That's easy enough. But then, the following year all these players leave and you lose all the games. It's when all the stars are gone that you have the chance to shine and show your talent as a coach. The source material is finished, but the table was set and all the players were in position. They blew it. They couldn't come up with good ideas on their own, and they ruined what had already been achieved. ... As for GRRM, I think he's just basking in the success of the show and will not finish the books until he has been able to milk HBO's production for as much as he can. Once the hype is over he'll come out with the new book to revamp the hype. Meanwhile, he'll just realease another World of Ice and Fire cookery book, Wildling mythology thesis, obscure character spin off tale, Cyvasse instruction manual, Westerosi Fashion and Style booklet etc. ... _


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